DNC Whacks The Weekly Standard, Calls Obama Gloating Story Bogus

WASHINGTON -- The Weekly Standard put up a blog post on Thursday questioning why, at a time when the White House was pushing for humility following Osama bin Laden's death, the website gutsycall.com was suddenly redirecting to the president’s campaign site.

The post, which speculated that the page was created by the president’s “campaign team (or some of his ardent supporters),” got a link on the Drudge Report, from which it, naturally, drew many more eyeballs.

There was one hitch. The Democratic National Committee insists the website wasn’t created by its team, or the Obama campaign apparatus. A DNC official told The Huffington Post that neither entity bought the URL in question, nor do they have a clue -- as of Friday morning, at least -- who did.

The creator of the website, indeed, appears to have cloaked the registration details, making him or her completely anonymous. The server is located in Scottsdale, Arizona (which says little about the website itself) and was purchased from GoDaddy.com.

The misinformation (if, in fact, this isn’t a DNC site) may seem like small potatoes, far overshadowed by the news of bin Laden’s death. But the DNC took the incident seriously enough to push back forcefully on Friday, not only denying any connection to the provenance of the URL but also purchasing a URL of its own -- www.weeklyNOstandards.com -- to redirect to the Weekly Standard’s homepage.

The response's purpose is twofold, said the committee official: to demonstrate just how simple it is to purchase a website that redirects to another (while taking a swipe at the magazine in the process) and to nip the story in the bud before it gets absorbed by a broader audience.

“There are serious issues that we should be focusing on right now including the Republican proposal to end Medicare as we know it. So the sooner we can kill off these kinds of distractions that some prefer to trade in, the better,” said DNC National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan.

In the fast-paced world of online news, however, the response may already be too late. The Weekly Standard post was put up by Daniel Halper at 4:36 p.m. on Thursday. The DNC says it was not contacted beforehand and Halper did not return a request for comment once told that the Huffington Post would be covering the incident.

The DNC was only informed around midnight after responding to last night's South Carolina GOP presidential debate. After consulting with its new-media team, the DNC decided to go forward with the aggressive pushback Friday morning. By then, however, insinuation that gutsycall.com had been orchestrated by the DNC had been picked up by Drudge and a host of other conservative websites.

Comments

[gutsycall2012]

10:07 PM on 05/11/2011

The url www.GutsyCall.com now points to the Twitter page of Weekly Standard deputy online editor Daniel Halper who originally speculated that the Obama 2012 Campaign had purchased the url. In addition, www.GutsyCall.NET now points to the Wikipedia page for Journalism Ethics and Standards. Owned!

[TREKMIND]

02:04 AM on 05/09/2011

What do you expect from people who don't believe in reality. Conservatives believe Reagan was the greatest president ever and yet when you actually ask them would you vote for someone who gave amnesty to illegals and some who raise taxes repeatedly and someone who would add trillions to the deficit they all said no, and them you tell those conservative republicans that they just voted against Reagan, they don't believe in their twisted universe that Reagan grew the deficit by trillions gave amnesty to illegals and raise taxes repeatedly.

[Joseph Scott]

08:23 PM on 05/08/2011

What more can they do to rob Pres. Obama of the credit the commander in chief should get for being in command while our special forces/seals/cia carried out what has to be one of our greatest military achievements in many, many years?

Calling his modest, restrained appearance and tone at the announcement press conference in the WH late at night, and his appearance with the families and at the firehouses in NYC, is simply despicable.

Especially when you consider Bush's modest appearance arriving in a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier, dressed in a flight suit (military dress for leaders is one of the 14 signs of fascism...but I digress), a flight suit hitched extra tight around his well-exercised frame, and yes, with the modest Mission Accomplished banner billowing behind him.

Ah, for the modesty of old. When a 'real' American was in the WH

[mikies2u]

11:28 PM on 05/08/2011

As an obvious lefty, does mean you also consider Obama as a fascist too, since he wears a military coat or jacket almost every time he meets with our troops in the field?

[MaeScott]

06:09 AM on 05/09/2011

Bagger, please.

[Slim Dude]

08:14 PM on 05/08/2011

Republican Strategy: When all else fails, make something up.

[mikies2u]

11:42 PM on 05/08/2011

Democratic strategy: When everything you do fails, blame Bush.

[gay4god]

02:30 AM on 05/09/2011

Nothing wrong with keeping recent history in the minds of this Attention Deficit nation we live in. George Bush and his republican controlled congress did some despicable, immoral, and illegal things during their time which directly set up many of the issues we face today as a nation (and don't bring up Monica - I'd take a thousand infidelities over torture, outing CIA agents, and bankrupting the country).

All part of their plan too. See, first you bankrupt the country with wasteful spending on tax cuts for the wealthiest and a trumped up war in Iraq while at the same time encouraging robber baron mentality on wall street. Then, you blame the incoming president for the inevitable near collapse of the economy and project the claim of wasteful spending onto the democrats. Finally, you claim that the only alternative to total fiscal collapse of the nation is massive austerity measures and union busting while refusing to even acknowledge the idea of rolling back the tax policy and war spending that caused the mess.

So yeah, part of the democratic strategy is to remind the people that the republican party got us into this mess and have no real solutions.

[MarkInIrvine]

07:02 PM on 05/08/2011

"By then, however, insinuation that gutsycall.com had been orchestrated by the DNC had been picked up by Drudge and a host of other conservative websites" ... which apparently are less interested in confirming the provenance and accuracy of their reports than they are jumping on a partisan bandwagon.

[Matt12]

03:31 PM on 05/08/2011

The Weekly Standard = The Lobby

[theMightyT v3]

02:50 PM on 05/08/2011

UpNorthGuyWI
How about that 9% unemployme­nt and those Obama gas prices?

============

Oil prices just col.lapsed, so hopefully you'll be thanking Obama when gas prices take a tumble as well.

It's more likely, however, that you'll still be on your kn.e.es wating for more K.och "talking points" to get rammed down your thr.oa.t.

Figuratively speaking, of course.

[rcwhite364]

06:47 PM on 05/08/2011

Don't worry. UpNorthGuyWI is another ultra-CONservative drone who lacks the ability for independent thought.

[KrazyJay]

02:07 PM on 05/08/2011

Perhaps flying in on a fighter, landing on a aircraft carrier and standing in front of a banner that screamed "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" would have been more modest?

I'm amused that a president that is continually responsible for cleaning up the mess of his predecessor is somehow still required by the other side to pay homage to George II in lieu of taking credit.

Obama ended combat operations in Iraq, Obama killed bin Laden, and (hopefully) Obama will end the occupation of Afghanistan. Instead of PRAISING Bush, we should be BLAMING him.

[rcwhite364]

06:50 PM on 05/08/2011

Ultra-CONservatives won't get it, and they'll still blame Obama for being black, even if they won't often mention it in public. That's what they mean when they say he "isn't one of us". Their ignorance, prejudice, and paranoia knows no bounds.

[Joseph Scott]

08:28 PM on 05/08/2011

Oh, looks like we're posting the same thing, noticing Bush's 'modest' behavior in relation to Obama's restraint. Great minds run in channels!

I couldn't believe Bush not showing up with Obama as a sign of national unity...no, his feelings are hurt, or something. It's all about George, still. The man almost never rose up to the station of his office, and still doesn't.

[rsaillant1]

08:50 AM on 05/09/2011

As you wrote, "Bush (almost) never rose up to the station of his office,"
Addendum: ...and he's not living up to the position of an American citizen.

[JDZSB]

12:19 PM on 05/08/2011

The American public can be manipulated and most of the money collected to run election campaigns go to ad agencies and consultant groups who are in the business of manipulating the public. Most of the time they are advertising product and services, but have grown their business base by expanding into politics and creating all kinds of TV, magazine, Internet, and radio ads to "sell" their candidate. Obama alone, will raise in excess of 1 Billion dollars to support his re-election campaign and, typically, the candidate that raises the most money has the best chance to win because of being able to buy more "air" time, etc. This process is perverted and is unfair to the American public because it is perpetuated by the wealthy constituents who have the most to gain relative to the outcome of the elections, not the American taxpayers. My way of getting around this is to focus on the "state of the country" and mainstream issues and which political party appears to have policies that best address these issues rather then WHO is running for a prominent position like our President. We have to rise above the PR campaigns and personal attacks and focus, for example, on which political party will commit to fixing our financial and economic problems and has the best plan to accomplish this, rather then the actual candidate him or herself.

[FiredUpRTG]

11:02 AM on 05/08/2011

Grown up political groups behaving like underage middle school bullies with Facebook accounts. PLEASE, CAN WE RAISE THE MATURITY BAR??!!!

[jesthefaxman]

01:31 PM on 05/08/2011

How? This is the state of US Journalism today. Until you get some actual reporters teaching journalism, there will more intellectually vacant, morally relative incuriousness, and basically social media based laziness. You have ideologues with no boots on the ground training or experience. Say what you will for Obama, he at least organized for Acorn and brought that experience back into the classroom.

[madame48]

08:17 PM on 05/08/2011

maybe the lazy journalists are from the new Wall st For Profit colleges that load kids with debt and teach very little..but make big bucks for investors the managers....ah yes ...the American way

[JerryC101]

02:16 PM on 05/08/2011

Nice; call out that false equivalency, thus lessening the impact of the morally bankrupt thug/pug lie. Sorta like when the bully gets hit back by the bullied, and criticizing both for fighting. Sometimes lies have to be dealt with; if Iraq/WMD/threat had been called out we'd be... well that's obvious now, eh?

[johnvilvens]

05:06 AM on 05/08/2011

President Obama is taking a few victory laps and photo shots. This is a big feather in his cap, he has a right to take his victory laps. But he does not need to say he is not. Action speaks louder than words. Good decision Obama, great job CIA and navy seals.

[FiredUpRTG]

01:53 PM on 05/08/2011

Come off it , everybody; the president did no more victory laps than expected of any president. Self-promotion would be getting into fatigues on an air carrier, saying "mission accomplished"! I didn't see the President start singing "Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb bin Laden". It was very respectful and dignified.

But there will always be critical people who'd complain about a crooked hair on a fly's leg…

[UpNorthGuyWI]

07:40 PM on 05/07/2011

How about that 9% unemployment and those Obama gas prices?

[samdem]

07:44 PM on 05/07/2011

Gas was $4.58 in July 2008 - we were bleeding 700k jobs a month by the end of the year.
How soon you R's forget

[thinkabtit39]

02:59 AM on 05/08/2011

how Blind the D's are for not seeing what is going on RIGHT NOW!! the past already happend, lets focus on the PRESENT!! OPEN YOUR EYES! Oh wait, I bet you're going to say it is ALL Bush's Fault!

[john262]

06:16 PM on 05/08/2011

When gas prices peaked in 2008 many Democrats were blaming Bush for the high prices. And that's fine. The buck stops here. But now that gas prices are high under Obama, many of the same people who blamed Bush are silent about Obama. It's the opposite of "what is good for the goose is good for the gander" and it's rank hypocrisy.

[zubedaniel]

10:12 PM on 05/07/2011

HOW ABOUT ALL THE TAX BREAKS FOR THE RICH THAT WAS SUPPOSE TO PRODUCE JOBS? THEY LIED , CONTINUE TO LIE,, AND ALEWAYS WILL LIE TO MAKE THE RICH RICHER ANS SCREW THE MIDDLE CLASS.

[BillForObama]

05:40 AM on 05/08/2011

#1

Fanned and faved

[zatonoichi]

07:19 PM on 05/07/2011

How many republicans does it take to screw in a light bulb?

None. They'd rather keep us all in the dark, and screw everything else.

Read the Weakly Stranded, and you'll see w'um talkin' about.

[Harlem-bred]

01:36 PM on 05/08/2011

Fanned !!

[rcwhite364]

07:13 PM on 05/08/2011

Ka-FANNED!

[smilingasa]

06:50 PM on 05/07/2011

Poor Republicans, still crying over this one - still spinning. still whining!

[Reno Fickler]

05:26 PM on 05/07/2011

Isn't there only one reason a person would want to "reimage" himself??

[smilingasa]

06:48 PM on 05/07/2011

Who Bush?

He is tired of living like OBL under house arrest! He wants to go the Switzer/and but they say prison awaits him!

[zubedaniel]

10:23 PM on 05/07/2011

Bush and Cheney should be waterboarded til they admit they lied to all of us and were only in Iraq to save Cheney's halliburton buddies from bankruptcy, we spent trillions there for no reason.The deficit we face today was caused by the stupid , selfish, corrupt REPUBLICAN ADMINISTRATION OF BUSH/ CHENEY, NO WONDER BUSH WOULD NOT GO TO GROUND ZERO WITH OUR PRESIDENT OBAMA WHO DESERVES ALL THE CREDIT FOR GETTING BEN-LADIN.

[zubedaniel]

10:49 PM on 05/07/2011

Where is my original reply for this spot? I thought this was a comment area, why the censorship? this sucks